Citizens flaunt their political colours

Voters Drive

The capital has witnessed a surge of political rallies in recent times and as
the D-Day draws near city residents are becoming more passionate, coming out of
the closet to reveal their political affiliations.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or Congress are all out on the streets holding rallies, slamming their opponents and wooing the youth, elderly and women. And each party is adopting new and innovative ways to garner as much
support from Delhizens as possible.

Speaking to Metrolife a few weeks back, Harbashish Singh, convenor of creative cell, BJP said, “We are getting women from households to enroll in BJP. It will give them empowerment because they will feel that they are now with Modiji and they will feel they are doing something.”

However, soon after a week of following up on the same issue, Singh said, “Elections are too near, we are not being able to carry out the exercise (enrolling women) at the moment.”

The exercise was shortlived and was specially launched to woo women from the minority communities to join BJP.

On the other hand, AAP has been campaigning in the most innovative ways possible: Flash mob, singing, dancing and chanting catchy slogans for Arvind Kejriwal, ‘The Muffler Man’ as they call him.

Travelling from Hauz Khas Metro Station to Rajiv Chowk is in itself an eye opener on
the concerted efforts by AAP members to garner support from Delhi’s ‘aam aadmi’.
At each stop enters a man wearing a Kejriwal cap, Hum aam aadmi hain, it reads.
On Race Course Metro Station a bunch of them came in grabbing everyone’s attention. One commuter particularly gets annoyed by the AAP supporters presence.

He tells one of the AAP supporters that “prices of grocery products have gone down after the BJP came in power at the Centre.” They both quarrel on the price hike issue for 10 minutes, without either ceding ground. Neither of them were ready to tell their names. At the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station an autodriver tells Metrolife, “Ideological freedom has been sensationalised by Kejriwal.”

Congress hoardings are put up in areas like Jangpura, Hauz Khas and Ashram. The hoardings are huge listing the ‘achievements’ but the party’s rallies were not as
huge as compared to BJP and AAP.

The special drive to encourage women voters to cast their vote, was on in areas like Khanpur, Mehrauli and Chhatarpur, among others for a week, from February 1-5. “We have lined up puppet shows and cultural events in the far off areas of south Delhi,” District Election Office Niharika Rai told Metrolife.

“The volunteers try to analyse their opinion and motivate them to vote in the upcoming elections by removing their doubts,” she added.

In a Mehrauli village, Avtar Singh Sejwal says proudly, “We make our women vote. Everyone in our area votes.”

People who had gathered around said that voting is a very important right.

“Women are not educated and as a matter of fact the right education is not given to anyone in our country. Patriarchy has gripped us. Women in villages do not feel powerful enough to speak their minds,” adds Sejwal.

Parveen, holding a meeting at the Prachin Peepal Shiv Ma­­­ndir in Lado Sarai says,
“I am from Mehrauli and I rea­lise the importance of voting. Maybe the parties think wo­men don’t vote because they know that we are oppressed.”